MASAYUKI SHIODA “Ke no Hi Hyouhaku 2 (Daily Bleach 2) - Break, Strain, Direction”

Since the 2000s, through his photography work for the production of numerous anthologies, as well as for culture magazines and CD jackets, Shioda has won over enthusiastic fans of his contemporary photos, captured with his sharp intuition. A change from the snapshots often seen in his early work, he has recently increased his use of blur, shifting the camera as he shoots. This style in which he attempts to capture something unexpected, something surprising, may be considered to be a shooting technique not unlike that of improvised music - which is fitting for Shioda, who has experienced listening to a wide variety of musical genres. The photos acquired merely from the effects obtained through the movement of perspective or light, without even looking through the viewfinder, are similar to musical improvisation, set apart from existing genres, striving to be free. What’s more, by controlling the gradation of the prints in his own darkroom, he successfully draws out a foreign world diverging from reality.

The title of this series, Ke no Hi (“Daily”), has been coined by Shioda, who has been continually interested in the kind of visual expression that breaks through the framework of ordinary photography, with ke (“mundane”) representing ordinary daily life as opposed to festivals, all within the idea of hare (“glad, formal”) and ke in other words representing the extraordinary and the routine. In this exhibition, which will be the second at our gallery, we will display a total of eight pieces from nearly three years’ worth of Shioda’s work, in three parts.

The first part, Strain, represents the past, exhibiting the standard snapshot and a classic expression. In these pieces, capturing the local scenery of Japan in gloomy tones, appear ghost images of old model cars and corners of desolated towns, allowing the viewer to read into the stories of different people and their everyday lives. Next, the second part, Break, represents the present; after controlling the gradation of photos of natural scenery featuring strange rock formations, Shioda overlaps the prints with drawings, experimentally destroying the depiction of reality and extending the framework of the photo. Lastly, the third part, Direction, represents the future, in which the viewer cannot tell exactly what has been captured, and such indistinct objects are clearly given a special significance - as if to declare Shioda’s next creative process, as he has come face to face with photographic expression.

In addition to holding this exhibition, we are also publishing Masayuki Shioda’s latest photobook.

MASAYUKI SHIODA